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LBISD AmericanHeartAssociation

Thursday, September 13th

00:25:52

Transcript - Not for consumer use. Robot overlords only. Will not be accurate.

Good morning and welcome to another edition of living veteran San Diego a public service presentation of the and a count San Diego radio stations I'm Garry lake. The American Heart Association is dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke and striving to save and improve lives by making the places we live. Learn to work and he'll healthier. Joining us this morning is American Heart Association San Diego division executive director. Jennifer's who bought got an American Heart Association volunteer and chief government and external affairs officer at tri city medical center. Aaron by Zach welcome Jennifer welcome Aaron hello I think. Let's start with some background and. Makes personal how long as the American Heart Association pin in San Diego. Here in San Diego we have been here about 65 years the Pena part of national and we are part of the national organization headquartered in Dallas that has been around for almost a hundred years. And the mission. Of the American Heart Association. Finish of the American Association is to create a world free of heart disease and stroke and we are working with communities all across the country to help improve the overall. Quality of life form for Americans to the focus is improving. Heart health that's right heart health the main focus that's exactly and that includes. Stroh's. Yes there are a lot of same match contributing factors high blood pressure diabetes that can have similar outcomes for both stroke and heart disease and we are focused on both heart and brain health. And along with that focus or what comes with that focus. Is. Your San Diego at heart this is the campaign of viewers. You know way to talk about our mission and we really want to see any again to feel. Empowered to care about their health and so we're working throughout the county to. Bring awareness to the issue of heart disease and stroke heart disease remains the number one killer of American. And we have a lot of different ways that were working throughout the community to to raise that level of awareness and help people know how important is to know. Your numbers and to take care. And is it is it different for men and women as far as statistics go. You know about one in three people will experience. Have some sort of experience with heart disease and many people think of heart disease as a man's disease but that really couldn't be further from the truth. In fact a woman dies of heart disease and tree 82 fat and statistics kind stops me in my tracks every time. But often times and the symptoms of heart attack or different in women than in men and so women don't. Don't know to be asking their doctor about things that are often under diagnosed entered under treated so. We do spend a lot of our efforts in educating women to be advocates for themselves. To share with other women in their lives that this is a major health threat for a scan eagle was some of the symptoms and you mentioned a couple. Sure we'll some of the differences are some things that women experience that are different for men you know I think a lot of times you may picture you see a heart attack in the movies and it's. You know elephant on the chest and pushing hard and filing to the ground and and with women in the science Camille Little more subtle. PP you know and aching in your honor particularly your left arm. John Paine. Heartburn excessive fatigue. And a tough one like that is those are some symptoms that women tend to experience I had a regular basis with you know high levels of anxiety are. You know working on so many things in the house and and also at work and and so knowing your body in Nino really paying particular attention to. Some changes in those areas do not be afraid to talk to your doctor especially in things like blood pressure that's definitely a focus area of ours are in town. I know your numbers talk to your doctor and and make sure if you're diagnosed with high blood pressure can treat you take your medication. And I know heartburn that's that's a symptom with men to yes and and that was always an issue with me that I was I was concerned about is always had heartburn. I had quite often until it was till I got it under control. But that's that's a scary thing because you never know whether it is just heartburn more of a heart condition. And I think act that's what goes back to really knowing your body so if that's something that you experienced. A regular basis or you know certain foods aggravate that. That's different than a very her face says. New sensation. Accompanied by day one or two. And these other sentence so excessive fatigue and when I expect that like not being able to get out of bed and that would be different and how you would normally experience you know on a weekend or something like that. We are seeing with you know the job pain in the arm pain you're feeling that plus a couple of these other things. Good idea common in line and that's you know that's an important message to it and I think women especially we tend to minimize symptoms. But don't be afraid to call 911. The importance of the treatment that you receive as soon as that call is placed is essential so don't wait don't think it's probably nothing. Don't waste your husband gets home ask him to take each and emergency room don't go through on that just to species common on one. Hello let's talk about San Diego hearth several components. That go with this this campaign of viewers what's let's talk about what we can do. How we can improve our quality of life. He I mean what are things that we really try to focus on is just talking about the importance of healthy living. And would be you know the goals of the American Heart Association or to. To improve the overall quality of life. For all Americans by 20% by the year 20/20 and I'll share. We have moved that needle only about 45%. So we have police echo and that's because. Behavior change is difficult right we all know. We should eat better we all know we should move more or we should get more exercise but really. Adapting those lifestyle changes and making. Accessibility. Easy for every wine that's what we really look at so we get a variety of ways. Through education and working with individual communities. I know I'm making. And healthy foods more readily available thinking about. Meals that are served in schools so that's something that we're tackling at a policy level what are. In those lunches that are being served to our kids every day because that's when those healthy. Lifestyle choices began at a really early age right so that's one way that our tackling that from a policy point of view. And then from on the ground damn plane never programs we've teaching art and program and we Garton an elementary school loans and particularly and so underserved areas where. Access to healthy fruits and vegetables. Maybe more limited. So we're going and we plan to guard and working with cute little kids kindergarten on how to grow care and radishes and we hear from teachers often that they say you know this was the first time they ever try to cucumber into because they grew it themselves you can there's so. Picky at guard that time getting my name fourteen year old that you luckily it. You know when they grow it themselves they are more likely to turn it and so we're. Yeah it sounds simple but if you start introducing these healthy behaviors at a young each. Much easier. To have a higher success story as we get older. N another component of your San Diego at heart is healthy environments. Yeah I think you know one thing that I think we don't really talk about enough is smoke free environments and and you know we don't think about it is often because especially here in California and then there's not many places that you can and smoke outside and I don't we don't Mallon is much anywhere we don't go to restaurants and and and smell smoke and and I think and it's right they are still you know high percentage of the population here and delineate that he's still smoking in their particular Ayers the county where. Smoking is more prevalence of rain hour actually part of work group and I am looking couple of different areas where this is really prevalent and we're trying to figure out what the actually tackle that issue. You know. The awareness is there right we know so we need to have really combat this in a different way and so looking at putting together four and then you know bringing together some thought leaders on how to we. I don't get people to you know to make some changes in the theory that and just kind. Time one hearings are unimportant in a lot of what you do and again this is awareness raising awareness that's right. And an empowering community members to. To really find ways that work within their own communities within their own homes. To really lead to this true behavior change again I think. A lot of this is is I want to its common knowledge but we have a hard time name sort of making its decorating and because it isn't always easy. Choosing after a long day to. Go to the Jammer to take a walk isn't always easy and so. We will we actually look at factors like back to it and developed and surround it to say if you don't have to spend hours that the gen TI have spent two hours a day in an hour in the gents. But our science shows. Thirty minutes today broken up into ten minute bursts of energy. Are good for your heart lose a street you all right ten minutes ten minutes of my desk ten minutes at home ten minutes when I wake up in the morning we can do them right so. So it's yes it's awareness but it's a call to action that it's important rate we all have reasons why we wanna be here for a long time. So we need to kind of harness that motivation. And and go find those ten minutes to think. This change is not easy I I. I had to makes them lifestyle changes myself just lost thirty pounds I'm so. I know that firsthand it's not not an easy thing to do but it feels good once once you accomplish what you set out to do absolutely. I'm we're finding more businesses offering heart healthy lifestyle activities for the employees you know employees. Wellness is becoming so important within companies and are still grateful for that and there are I mean there are some wonderful companies and figure out any other doing some wonderful things around wellness. And we go out and work with corporations are really evaluate their wellness programs so again and it's come taking everything to the next level so it's great to offer wellness. But let's measure how effective it really is. And so we have an assessment tool that we can go and consult with. HR professionals on what are they offering how are they doing how our employees responding. Are they responding to incentives is that more about culture building and team building as an organization what is it for that particular. Company that's gonna make it work because again a lunch program is only as a fact is. How well people do you actually have to do it so you cannot for the best program in the world. If we can't get people actually make those behavior changes amount could be that effective I think I mean companies are real thing. A healthy workforce. Is a more productive work than Larry and I mean merry I mean that the cost of health care which I'm sure and I. Colley here can and can teach you isn't very eloquently. You know is staggering and so business has learned weeks and saying we can cut some cots here by incentivizing employees to get those. Wellness exams hand. And and do some preventative minutes. And I know some businesses organized like company walks and things like that too nowadays. Yes absolutely. You know in fact at tri city medical center we worked with them to end sol walking path around the hospital so. That's where employees and patients to use that we were so excited coming in and work with them on that because it's it's really putting the mission and how. Aaron Europe. An American Heart Association volunteer and survivor. Survivor of of heart disease do you mind sharing your historian little yeah not a problem so when I was a little kid. I was symptomatic of cardiac issues but I grow up pretty poor and so I didn't really have meaningful access to health care services. And so it just got overlooked. On and it just so happens that after high school and went to Ian T school became an emergency medical technician. And it just so happens that one day. Had an incident apple while I was delivering a patient to the hospital. And a nurse asked me why my glasses my sunglasses were bouncing on my uniform shirt and they're bouncing because it was my heart beat now and it's been something that I had for years. When I Wear my stethoscope over my shoulders the had to step let's open bounce. I never really thought much about it and she asked me if they can hook me up to to the monitor real quick in the idea and they found. Went in at teenagers in your case what's a wolf Parkinson white syndrome. Which is accessory or natural electrical pathways in the heart. And it it was it was an interesting situation because not too many people have it. I've eking kind of the test cases in the ambulance things he has working for an go around and people would put. You know well EKG's on me to have to run a strip they would call it to see what it looked like and one not. But we thought it was something that was fairly easily manageable through change in diet that is no caffeine. On it and eventually some medication that. It became clear. In a relatively short time afterwards of that wasn't going to help it. And ended at the had to have surgery and it turned out they had eleven extra pathways in my heart electoral outlook on hard. And I was but the doctor calls and extreme high risk for sudden death syndrome. And so it's it's kind of an interesting thing to be in this position where he work on an ambulance was responding to emergency calls everyday and it suddenly to be patient. Time to see things from a very different perspective. And it's one of the reasons why. Tom I did throughout the rest of my career even after leaving enrichment services very actively involved American Heart Association because I know. That they are working to call attention to the issue that I had as a care. That IE very easily could have died from. But for some strange reason I happen to survive to the point rocking get definitive care. And now I'm doing good. And in what kind of work you do in a volunteer worker you do with them so why do you speaking engagements the one on ten I'm involved in a lot of their activities and luckily I've worked for organizations over the years that have had very close relationships with the American Heart Association and so. I worked as a an academic health system in town and did a number of projects for the American Heart Association. On end and McCain orchid tree city. As they had a government external affairs we already had a relationship with American Heart Association and you Jennifer I knew everybody involved already. And so it was a nice perfect fit. For me to be involved in activities now. And now tri city medical center which by the noise in Oceanside right it is now tri city medical centers collaborating with the American Heart Association to encourage people think about why. Their heart and brain health is important. The campaign and his wife is why press little bit about that you know the interesting thing about life is why this is the kind of thing and hits me on a daily basis and and is. We need help is very close experience with death. You tend to. It sounds cliche but it's totally true you tend to take around take stock of the of your life in a different way. Now I have kids and I see my kids every day and my kids are an example of life as one. You know like the moments that I would have missed within this experience is I never would have had. If this heart condition had taken my life years ago and I think about that in every patient. That I had on the ambulance. Who in many cases that we would respond to a person whose hard stop beating and we derive it'd be ten people around in the windy CPR. I think how match if people had actually known Andy and empowered DC PR. This patient how many more moments. In their life they would have been able to experience for their families. And that's life is why I mean it's every piece and it comes into our hospital our hospitals Tracy has. Mean tremendous effort towards providing the highest standard part stroke here anywhere and yes it's actually one of 37 gospels in the states recognized by. Our association at that level. For care and I think about everything that we do to advance that clause is giving people yet another opportunity to experience those moments of life and life is why that's why. So what what else are you doing what are you doing well where this campaign to raise awareness yes so we are donated money to the American Heart Association are partnering with on events like things like the north and the heart walk. Last year was the first year the north and now a specific one for an accounting. And we're doing a second year this year the section on October 20 on and we're going to be doing it in Oceanside. And it's it's a great advance an opportunity for everyone in our organization and businesses throughout north counting. And individuals who have been impacted by this or core interest and in this. The come out raised money for the American Heart Association to advance all these programs Jennifer spoke about before because it takes money to do these things. I and so we're trying to do that and we think it Trace it is important now because our position as a health care provider. No but if you look at our mission our mission is to advance the health and wellness of the communities we serve. This is a Mason opting to work with a partner it's been around for many many years who is at the forefront of this it was a recognized expert and that's OK where where. Getting close on running out of time and I I did want also talk about Jennifer about. On the CPR. School training kits that cute that you offered to us about. You soul. Not just a little bit about it and Aron mentioned about sudden cardiac arrest so about 70% of sudden cardiac arrest takes place outside of the hospital. And only one in ten people serve. And so the American Heart Association has been looking at how can we improve the survival rates will one of the ways that we can do that is to. Increase. Bystander intervention rate to meaning if you're out in puppet plays or in your home and you suffer cardiac arrest. Then how can we get more people to intervene because right now only about 40%. Of the time. Do victims of sudden cardiac arrest receive bystander. CPR. So we've been looking at a variety of ways and one of the ways again going back to our science our science showed. That compression only CPR is just as effective as full blown out to mount compression combined with compression like we've been doing for many many years. Especially when you see someone have a cardiac arrest there's enough oxygen in the body. That compression alone will keep the heart pumping until help arrives. So lol how we get more people that know that all they have to do with minor very simple fact it takes minutes to learn how to do the compassion and and still one of the ways that we've been doing that is to work with students so we know kids feel like they're invincible right their fearless. So we have a few parents schools program where we provide schools teachers. With training kids it's all ready to go there or mini mannequins for the classroom with a thirty minute video. And you can and you can teach an entire classroom of kids how to do compression only CPR in minutes. And so on that path here. We entered into a wonderful collaboration with the senior unified school district. We received a grant that allowed us to provide the kits to do training for their students in fifth seventh and ninth grade. And this program over the course of three years will allow us to train 30000. Students that's 30000 might seem pretty incredible. But with even more incredible is. In the span of one year we have already heard of too late savings stories. Of two students who learned how to do compression only CPR. In the classroom this past year. Saved. A life of a family member the first with a nine year old boy ain't seen Dmitry who saved his mom last summer. I share an incident at home and collapse on the floor. Husband knew how to do CPR kind freaked out and to remain as we do and that kind of situation he comes rank your dad dad I don't Shiite on Shiite death. And he did compression on his mother for ten minutes and help in the us pretty incredible. And then we just recently heard of another story and the young girl who. Saved her three year old cousin an eighth grade girl. Out and simple. And that there was again an infant and she performed CPR on missile three girls until he. Regained consciousness and that immediately texted her teacher and is the hardest are at it gives me chills within an hour and that coats. I just want to thank you for teaching me that because they don't know what would've happened if I had known known want to do I mean yeah. Great story is incredible in there about that too is that. All the other students for getting trained in downed power for the rest of their lives they will go on the spread out across the country or stay here in town and we'll carry that with them and hopefully. Advance the option for having other people around them learn CPR and just think about. How many Pete how many people's lives have changed because those two young kids save those members of their families I mean. Generations to come are impacted by the fact they were able to get involved and he knew what to do and you have what CPR kiosks also. Well we would like to have a Jeep Cherokee African. Still another again kept thinking outside the box how to we get more people to know about this that I hope they're people listening right now going I didn't know that you could just do compression then. You know how I learn entity that will go to hard cardboard inserts hands only CPR and you can learn how to get right on your computer. Of of one of the other ways that we are also educating thousands of people at a time are these standalone kiosks that the American Heart Association has developed. And we are facing them in high traffic areas like airports convention planners. Places like that and it's about the fact that an ATM machine that plays the song staying alive which is the beat that you should do compressor with you. And and Canon. That's Anaheim. So it plays that we get attention and people come over and use the machines. And just kind decent numbers that we placed first on at DFW. And in the first year over 101000 people use the machines so that's a great way we can reach a lot of folks. And so we have a couple of areas in San Diego that we are in talks with the placing like but it is a sponsor of opportunity as parents and we need funds to be able to do the work that we do and this is a he sponsor herbal you know funded initiative. And addition to the kiosk itself. I would love to do a whole campaign around it that really raises the awareness every one can and should be empowered to be election her. Now he mentions we have just couple minutes left you mentioned that you have the North County walk. Our heart walk coming up in October but there's one coming up the San Diego heart walk is coming up this Saturday may fifteenth. September 15 in Balboa park 7 AM. And they'll be about 111000. Of my closest friends it's a great morning and again we would love to have anybody out even if you're not sign up you're not registered just. Come on down check it out. And if people didn't wanna go to either of the walks to wanna participate. If they didn't sign up and advance and they register the day of the event. Yes you can register that day there's actually no registration fee. But if you do I just come and walk with us and check it out and we pledge to have you and then the American Heart Association cycle nation this is October 20 S I want to mention that because it's a brand new event that we're launching on October 25 and as this year it will be at the hotel now. And this is for spinners and if you love spinning and I know there are a lot of Haney and that like to spin. This is a new event that we're doing and it's a spin class out on the thing and hotels well I mean that's not found him. And that that the two hour variety and it's relay style also brings three friend and you write for thirty minutes. Middle happy hour rafters. Great way to spend a Thursday evening. And is there information about that I knew exactly yes fame so you can attitude and heart org and if you search San Diego and you can pull up all of our and to an ego and. And if somebody wants to help you with your mission you talk about how funds are needed to to continue these programs and and just like any other nonprofit. Funds are needed to continue doing what you do can they make a donation at your website. They absolutely can cart dot org. Is the best place to go to right on the home page street can support and we also have a local FaceBook page if you just search Dan Diego division American Heart Association. That's or repay all the info on upcoming events ways that you can Allen tear. If you want to reach out to me I would love to have a conversation and tell you more about any of these programs that you might be inconsistent. Right in Aaron website for our city tri city med dot org in the amazing thing about tree city is not only are we extremely good. Fitting tribute you happen to have a heart attack or stroke but we're also good at preventing that from happening to begin with. So go to that website talked to our folks seeking non get in with one of our cardiologists are one of our neurologists. And see some of the best in the business to make sure this year optimizing your health and are you on social media as well try yes we are on social media on Twitter on FaceBook that one not all yet to do is look at tri city medical's Jennifer. And Aaron thanks for being on Saturday thank you for all you do you do some great work the American Heart Association we appreciate it thank you. That concludes another addition of living veteran San Diego the opinions expressed are living better San Diego do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the staff and management. On the N com San Diego radio stations episodes of living better San Diego are available on the station's website. Join me next week when my guests will be from the GI film festival until that time Gary Lee had a great week.